the big FAT lie

It's that 3-letter word that might as well be a 4-letter word. It's fat. 

For the past 15-20 years, we have been taught to reach for the fat free, reduced fat, and low fat items to keep from getting fat. But did you know that eating fat won't necessarily make you fat??  It all depends on the types of fats. There are some that you need in your daily diet, and others you should completely avoid. To understand which fats we want and which we don't, then we need to understand the different types of fats. Fats can be placed to 2 categories, Saturated and Unsaturated. In these categories, there are further classifications of fats. 

Saturated Fat

Saturated fats (aka "solid fats") are solid at room temperature. These are commonly found in animal products like milk, meat, butter, margarine, shortening, and cheese. You can also find it in coconut oil, palm oil, and cocoa butter - but these don't contain cholesterol.

How does it affect my health?

Saturated fats can raise your cholesterol, risk of heart disease, and stroke.

How much should I have?

The American Heart Association recommends limiting the amount of saturated fats you eat to less than 7% of your total daily calories.  

Trans Fat

Trans fat is a type of saturated fat. These are fats that have been changed through the hydrogenation process. Hydrogenation is used to increase the shelf life of fat and to make it harder at room temperature. Trans fats can be found in foods like french fries, pastries, cookies, chips, crackers, pie crusts, biscuits, donuts, pizza dough, margarine, shortening, and other baked goods. 

How does it affect my health?

Trans fats can lower your LDL (good) cholesterol and raised your HDL (bad) cholesterol, increased your risk of heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes.

How much should I have?

Avoid trans fats as much as possible, if nothing else then limit it to no more than 1% of your daily caloric intake.

Unsaturated Fat

Unsaturated fats are in liquid form at room temperature. These are found mostly in plant oils. Monounsaturated fat and polyunsaturated fat are types of unsaturated fat.

Monounsaturated fat

Monounsaturated fat is a type of unsaturated fat. You can find it in vegetable oil, canola oil, olive oil, sunflower oil, sesame oil, peanut oil. You can also find this in avocados, peanut butter, and other nuts/seeds.

How does it affect my health?

This type of fat helps reduce bad cholesterol levels in the blood, and lower the risk of heart disease and stroke. They also provide the nutrition your body needs to develop and maintain its cells.

How much should I have?

Monounsaturated fats should not total more than 25-35% of your daily caloric intake.

Polyunsaturated fat

You can find this type of fat in seafood, and safflower, sunflower, sesame, soybean, and corn oils. There are two types of polyunsaturated fats, omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. 

Omega-3 fatty acids are found in foods from plants like soybean and canola oil, nuts, flaxseed, and fatty fish like salmon, herring, trout, and anchovies. You should eat 8 oz (or more) of these types of fish weekly (about 250 mg a day of omega-3 fatty acids).

Omega-6 fatty acids are found mostly in liquid vegetable oils like soybean oil, corn oil, and safflower oil.

 

How does it affect my health?

This type of fat includes essential fats like omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids, which your body can't produce on its own. These play a critical role in brain function and body growth/development. 

How much should I have?

Polyunsaturated fats should not total more than 25-35% of your daily caloric intake.

Here is a handy list I made to help figure out what to get next time you are at the store!